Benelli
have been making bikes for a long time.
Bikes such as the classic 750 and 900
six cylinder machines from the 70's
and 80's. Now the Tornado has taken
over with radical design and excellent
performance. It's been updated a couple of times and the 903cc version is possibly the cheapest supersports bike you'll ever see, anywhere.

Buell
have gone by the wayside now as Harley Davidson pulled the plug on them in late 2009. But you can still get them new from dealers while there's stock, and their build quality means they are likely to be around on the used market for years yet...

Cagiva
make big bikes that are a strange brew
of Japanese technology and Italian Styling.
They're also as rare as hen's teeth, though a new UK importer is trying to address that. More here soon, we hope...

Every
biker has probably owned an
MZ 2 stroke at some stage. Always the
winter hack bike and it went forever.
The new 1000cc four stroke bikes had great promise and the funky 125 Supermoto also looked exciting, but the current economic situation means that, for the moment at least, we're unlikely to see anything further from them.

Yamaha,
always at the top of the performance
tree with the legendary RD 2 strokes
and later with the FZR's. Today it's
the turn of the R series, bikes that
take performance and useability to new
levels.